MEDIATORS AVAILABLE TO HELP RESOLVE DISPUTES

More than 30 residents have called for assistance in past year

Got a problem with a noisy neighbor, someone’s barking dog, or a dilapidated fence at the house next door?

Maybe you’ve approached the responsible party, and he or she was less than cooperative. Your situation went from “bad” to “maybe I need a lawyer.”

Carlsbad has another solution. For the past year, the city has offered free mediation services for residents trying to resolve minor disputes.

More than 30 people have called for assistance since the program started a year ago, said Susan Irey, the city’s volunteer coordinator.

The city has five volunteers, all Carlsbad residents, who were trained at the National Conflict Resolution Center in San Diego to help people resolve their differences, she said.

“The mediators don’t decide who’s right or wrong,” Irey said. “They lead the discussion to a point where the participants themselves can find a reasonable decision.”

People are more likely to find a solution they like and to stick with the results when they work a problem out on their own, she said.

Police officers, the city’s code compliance department and even the city manager’s office sometimes refer people to mediators.

Often it’s difficult to get the second party in a dispute to agree to work with a mediator, she said, but sometimes just the suggestion of a mediator encourages people to resolve their differences on their own.

In one case, two business owners who were ending a long-standing partnership used the city’s mediation service because it was stipulated by their contract, Irey said. The mediation took six hours, she said, but ended with the satisfaction of both parties.

“Some people wonder if it’s legally binding,” she said. “It’s not.”

State law says that what’s said and done in mediation is confidential and not admissible in court.

When someone requests a mediator, an appointment will be made at City Hall within one or two weeks.

For more information or to request an appointment, call (760) 434-2868.